1. Field
The following description relates to a technique for estimating the emotional state of a user of a terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, smart phones or tablet PCs have been designed to have hardware performance able to provide a variety of functions and services. In particular, a number of smart phones or tablet PCs provide context-awareness services that are characterized by providing various functions in consideration of the context of a user. Even though context awareness is still at a relatively early stage, high-quality intelligent services that involve complicated reasoning processes may become available in the near future.
In the meantime, studies from fields such as brain science or psychology show that emotions have a greater influence than reason on the human thinking process. Since the amount of time that it takes for the emotional brain to process sensory information is only about one fifth of the amount of time that it takes for the rational brain to process sensory information, people typically feel an emotion before coming up with a thought or making a decision. Accordingly, it may be argued that one's emotional state is reflected in his or her desire or decision-making process.
If a mobile terminal is able to estimate the emotion of a user, the mobile terminal may provide more relevant services such as, for example, providing services suitable for the current emotional state of the user.